Is it just me, or do final exams and the subsequent final grades that determine a major portion of our GPAs come at maybe the worst possible time ever? You want to listen to holiday music, enjoy the magical feeling of New York City at Christmastime, and lay on the couch watching ABC family’s 25 Days of Christmas all day long, but you’ve got final papers and exams preventing you from getting into the holiday spirit. And when you finally complete all those last assignments and drive home singing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” at the top of your lungs, you get home to remember that in a week or two your final grades will be up. You could go last minute Christmas shopping with your mom, but she might ask you if you’ve checked your grades yet.
Maybe you’re not worried about seeing your final grades—maybe you’ve been working hard all semester and you know your GPA is safe. But can we be real for a minute… who among us actually feels that way? Doesn’t everyone have at least one class that causes impending doom when logging on to myfordham while at home for winter break?
But maybe you’re one of the lucky ones—one of those students who decide they could give a candy cane less and doesn’t set foot in the library, but instead runs around spreading holiday cheer. If you are, I envy you. I myself lack the ability to stroll carefree through finals week (and I know I’m not the only one), so I will be facing the anxiety of final grades when I should be enjoying Christmas. Is it not so unnatural that finals and the holidays coincide? Can we start a petition to ban finals during the fall semester?